It’s back to the drawing board for the Archdiocese of Denver, which for three years has been trying to sell the old Cathedral High School building at 1840 Grant St., along with the gymnasium at 1835 Logan St.

The prospective developer, Sagebrush Capital, is no longer ready to buy.

“The contract was lost,” said Monsignor Thomas Fryar, pastor of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. “We were hopeful, but then the Historic Denver piece stepped in, and it took away all our potential.”

The archdiocese has been trying to sell the property since January 2009, when nuns of the Missionaries of Charity moved out.

The building is now mostly empty, aside from some artists using the north wing for Grant Street Studios.

“We rent from the Cathedral,” said artist Phil Bender, who has managed the building for 20 years. “We’ve been here a lot longer than we thought we would be.”

Sagebrush Capital, which built the luxury mid-rise Portofino Tower at 1827 Grant St., had planned to build a similar structure across the street on the site of the Cathedral High School building.

But when neighbors learned that the 90-year-old building could be demolished, they banded together — Capital Hill United Neighbors — along with Historic Denver and Colorado Preservation Inc. to save the building by applying for historic designation.

“It’s done in the style of Spanish Renaissance Revival, something we don’t have a lot of examples of,” said John Olson , director of preservation programs at Historic Denver.

Dedicated on Oct. 24, 1921, Cathedral High School and Convent was designed by Denver architect Harry J. Manning.

Preservationists argue that the building is significant not only for its architectural merit but also for its link to Catholic history in Colorado, and to “a couple of prominent business moguls of the 20th century,” Olson said.

They include Edith Mullen Malo, the daughter of businessman-philanthropist John K. Mullen, and her husband, Oscar Malo. The gym — Oscar Malo Memorial Hall — is named for their son, Oscar Jr., who died of blood poisoning in 1921.

“Everyone who knows the property is enamored of it,” Olson said. “People have a lot of feelings for it.”

He said the preservation group is looking forward to working with the Cathedral parish to determine the site’s reuse possibilities.

After three years of having the property on the market, and after this contract fell through, the Archdiocese of Denver just wants to find a buyer.

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